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Saw the movie yesterday (as it is past midnight when I post this) and enjoyed it. I'm not a huge Godzilla fan by any means; I've only seen a small handful of the many movies that have been made over the past 70 years. But I did like this movie a lot.

Well, this proves that someone is going to the theaters...

Godzilla Minus One Breaks Box Office Record With Domestic Debut - CBR.com

Per Deadline, Godzilla Minus One has opened at the domestic box office with $11 million. This sets the new record for 2023's largest opening for a foreign movie, overtaking the $10.1 million haul garnered by Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba in March. As the film's release kicked off the final month of the year, it's unlikely to have this record dethroned by another film before January. This also follows Godzilla Minus One breaking records with its initial release in Japan, grossing 1.04 billion, or $7.8 million, during its first three days. $1.2 million of that was from 49 IMAX theaters, which is the large opening for a Japanese live-action film in this format.

$11 Million is not much. The Marvels did $43M and was a huge flop due to the budget.

However, 3x as many people went and saw that over G Minus 1. That is not to take away from G's accomplishment, but the scale of the two is very different.

In no one way does this box office "prove" that people are going to the cinema.

 Easy E wrote:
$11 Million is not much. The Marvels did $43M and was a huge flop due to the budget.

However, 3x as many people went and saw that over G Minus 1. That is not to take away from G's accomplishment, but the scale of the two is very different.

In no one way does this box office "prove" that people are going to the cinema.

It was never going to do better than The Marvels. Foreign films can rarely compete with US films in the US theaters. Regardless, Godzilla Minus One (a film with subtitles) still brought in almost $11.5 milion over the weekend and was number three at the box office (behind Beyonce and less the $3M behind Songbirds and Snakes in 1,300 fewer theatres). That to me says the problem that DC and Marvel are having at the box office isn't a problem with films in general.

 Manchu wrote:
You can see the limitations if you look hard, for example regarding the sets. And some of the CG is questionable. But yes each and every yen is up there are the screen.

Contrast this to The Force Awakens. Where did the money go in that film?

Catering budgets and other stuff completely unrelated to actually making the film.

 Ghaz wrote:

 Easy E wrote:
$11 Million is not much. The Marvels did $43M and was a huge flop due to the budget.

However, 3x as many people went and saw that over G Minus 1. That is not to take away from G's accomplishment, but the scale of the two is very different.

In no one way does this box office "prove" that people are going to the cinema.

It was never going to do better than The Marvels. Foreign films can rarely compete with US films in the US theaters. Regardless, Godzilla Minus One (a film with subtitles) still brought in almost $11.5 milion over the weekend and was number three at the box office (behind Beyonce and less the $3M behind Songbirds and Snakes in 1,300 fewer theatres). That to me says the problem that DC and Marvel are having at the box office isn't a problem with films in general.

I don't understand this logic at all. "300 people went to see the marvels but 100 people saw godzilla. That means godzilla proves that marvel/dcs problems are unique to them and not an industry issue".

Elaborate please. Explain your math on how this somehow doesn't reflect the issues facing cinemas in general.

Marvels was a domestic film with huge screen coverage while Godzilla Minus One is a foreign film with limited screenings. Foreign films within the US have historically not done as well as domestic film, especially ones with subtitles.

An unexpected amount of people went out to the theaters to see a foreign subtitled film tells us that people are willing to go to the theater if the movie is good, or at least appealing.

Just looking only at raw number of tickets sold doesn't give the whole picture of how a film has done. You have to look at the budget, marketing budget, expected returns, tickets sold, tickets sold per screen, and number of screens being shown.

Haven’t seen it yet, but pretty impressive looking for a budget of $15 million.

 Ahtman wrote:
Marvels was a domestic film with huge screen coverage while Godzilla Minus One is a foreign film with limited screenings. Foreign films within the US have historically not done as well as domestic film, especially ones with subtitles.

An unexpected amount of people went out to the theaters to see a foreign subtitled film tells us that people are willing to go to the theater if the movie is good, or at least appealing.

Just looking only at raw number of tickets sold doesn't give the whole picture of how a film has done. You have to look at the budget, marketing budget, expected returns, tickets sold, tickets sold per screen, and number of screens being shown.

I agree with the idea of tickets sold "per capita" or per screen as it were. But thats about it.

The general populous's willingness to go to the theater doesn't get reflected because a foreign film did well for a foreign film while still not reaching anywhere near the numbers of the domestic film. If Godzilla hit The Marvels numbers while being a foreign film on limited screens then yeah. You got something to say. But it's quite a bit short of that. The general populous hasn't gone to see either of these films.

 Lance845 wrote:
The general populous's willingness to go to the theater doesn't get reflected because a foreign film did well for a foreign film while still not reaching anywhere near the numbers of the domestic film. If Godzilla hit The Marvels numbers while being a foreign film on limited screens then yeah. You got something to say. But it's quite a bit short of that. The general populous hasn't gone to see either of these films.

If you expect 100 people to go to film A and only 30 show up whereas with film B only 5 are expected to show up and 15 do that is actually significant data. It isn't about "general populous" or some ratio of every citizen versus ones that went to a specific movie. That isn't the metric outside of marketing a Hollywood blockbuster.

 Ahtman wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:
The general populous's willingness to go to the theater doesn't get reflected because a foreign film did well for a foreign film while still not reaching anywhere near the numbers of the domestic film. If Godzilla hit The Marvels numbers while being a foreign film on limited screens then yeah. You got something to say. But it's quite a bit short of that. The general populous hasn't gone to see either of these films.

If you expect 100 people to go to film A and only 30 show up whereas with film B only 5 are expected to show up and 15 do that is actually significant data. It isn't about "general populous" or some ratio of every citizen versus ones that went to a specific movie. That isn't the metric outside of marketing a Hollywood blockbuster.

When you are discussing your own internal expectations of a movies performance in a given market you are correct. When you are discussing the market trends of an entire area across all movies released in a given period that is complete nonsense.

We are not talking about how happy Toho is with -1s performance. We are talking about the recent trends of movies failing to perform and whether that is an effect of a given studio/s or a broader issue in the industry domestically. It doesn't matter how well -1 does if -1 doesn't put butts in seats in a way that is reflective of the standard expectations of domestic movie performance. -1 is not showing a reversal of the trend. Movie theaters are still looking at a day with low profitability even if -1 sold half a theater of seats when they were only expecting 1/4.

cinema is dominated by US productions and those being more expensive while also earning more money and more people are going to watch what is advertised rather than something they don't know about

yet, an unknown foreign film without any advertising (compared to the super hero movies, the whole budget of -1 is less than The Marvels marketing cost) is taking the 3rd place tells us that the problem is not "cinema" in general

in addition earning also reflect how accessible a movie is, like I cannot even go to watch it as the next one having it is a 4 hour drive away so you have a limited audience
(and in Germany the movie is seen as controversial at best by critics because it "praises" militarism instead of being an anti-war film)

yet it looks like the limited audience the movie is offered to, prefers it over the big productions so the problem is not that people don't want to go to cinema to see movies
but people don't want to go to cinema to see bad movies

Yeah. Godzilla Minus 1 did good for the film it was! No one is disputing that. I'm happy for Toho and I look forward to more Japanese cinema in the states. Maybe some with out giant lizards?


Now, is the industry doing well just because G-1 did $11 Million? Are Movie Theatres no longer looking to Aqua-man to save them this year?

No.

Saw it last night at the theatres - really enjoyed it. Maybe its recency-bias, but I am having a hard time thinking of a movie from the past few years that I have enjoyed that much.

The themes of duty, sacrifice and family are easy enough, I suppose, but they were refreshing given what is presented these days. I appreciated the period piece aspect of 1946 Japan, and that grounded the movie as much as a monster movie can be grounded. It paid respects to the original without being a copy or parody. The final showdown is impressive and I was actually invested in the characters. This stands in contrast to the recent Godzilla movies (at least the North American ones with Monarch) where the humans just didn't seem to matter to the story and were themselves just annoying.

The visual treat for me was the portrayal of IJN ships. Brought back memories of building and painting Tamiya.

I would absolutely see another movie made by this team.

Just saw it. Loved it. Glad it’s doing well.

However, it seems to have done about what every other anticipated Japanese film has done at the US box office lately. It opened 40% lower than Dragonball Super, and just barely higher than What’s-‘is-face Demon Hunter Pig Head from earlier this year. If Godzilla is only doing Demon Train School Whatever numbers, that doesn’t seem like a huge shift in box office, and maybe not even as great an opening for Godzilla Minus One as it deserved. I’d love to see it cream the Marvel’s numbers, and I liked the Marvels.

I would like to see this in theatre. The closest showing is about 90 minutes away.

I am not sure I want to see it that much.

Godzilla Is The Fall's Unexpected Box Office Hero As Minus One Continues To Crush It - SlashFilm

"Godzilla Minus One" took in another $8.3 million in its second weekend in North America, per The Numbers. That put it at number three on the charts behind "The Boy and the Heron" ($12.9 million) and "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" ($9.4 million). Toho and director Takashi Yamazaki's film stayed at number three on the charts for the second straight weekend, thanks in no small part to ridiculously good word of mouth.

It's already the highest-grossing live-action Japanese movie in history in the U.S., with its total standing at $25.4 million (and counting). The film was only supposed to play in America through December 7 but the studio extended its run due to popular demand. Thanks to "The Boy and the Heron" taking the top spot, this marks the first time in box office history that two Japanese movies have been in the top three on the charts at the same time. At a moment when theaters could really use the help, it's Japan to the rescue.

I really want to see the Boy and the Heron, but unless it hangs out for a month in theaters, I’ll have to wait for streaming. But man I’d love to just vibe to a Miyazaki/Hisaishi experience in a theater.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Easy E wrote:
I would like to see this in theatre. The closest showing is about 90 minutes away.

I am not sure I want to see it that much.

It’s getting an extended theater stay, so if you visit any family near a theater playing it, maybe you’ll get a chance?

For me, there was a scene where everything in the story is coming together and the Godzilla theme kicked in that just made me so happy to have a chance to share the experience with my son.

 Easy E wrote:
I would like to see this in theatre. The closest showing is about 90 minutes away.
I am not sure I want to see it that much.

the closest general cinema for me is 90 minutes away, depending on the transport options, this is not something I would see as a problem

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

For me, there was a scene where everything in the story is coming together and the Godzilla theme kicked in that just made me so happy to have a chance to share the experience with my son.

Saw it saturday with my kids. I usually avoid theaters entirely, but this was so so worth it to see in theater.

And without going into spoilers, it hit me pretty hard some of the themes they dealt with on screen. I disagree with some of the youtubers' takes on the film's themes

Saw this last night. Just a great film in general. Easily the best human drama in one of these things and clearly a story the director was eager to tell. Just a great, passionate film full stop, no notes.

Yeah, it was quite good.

The atomic breath was really something...glad I saw it in a theater.

Hopefully going to see this on Thursday at IMAX. Heard it's well worth it.

Godzilla Minus One is getting a black and white version.

Right now it is just Japanese theaters but considering the success the film has had I wouldn't be surprised if it gets some limited release outside of Japan. At the very least I imagine it will be on Bluray/4k versions of the film when they release those.

It isn't just a simple filter according to the films director, Takashi Yamazaki:

We are now able to announce Godzilla-1.0/C, which we have been working on for a long time. Rather than just making it monochrome, it is a cut by cut. I had them make adjustments while making full use of various mattes, as if they were creating a new movie. What I was aiming for was a style that looked like it was taken by masters of monochrome photography. We were able to unearth the texture of the skin and the details of the scenery that were hidden in the photographed data. Then, a frightening Godzilla, just like the one in the documentary, appeared. By eliminating color, a new sense of reality emerges. Please live and resist further fear at the theater.

Dumb question here: My wife is not a fan of watching a fully subtitled movie. I am assuming G-1 is fully subtitled. Is this accurate?

 Easy E wrote:
Dumb question here: My wife is not a fan of watching a fully subtitled movie. I am assuming G-1 is fully subtitled. Is this accurate?

Correct. There is no dub that I am aware of.

Thanks all, that counted my wife right out. My spawn and I went to see it.

This is a really strong post-war reconciliation movie that also happens to have some Godzilla in it. Big G is a plot point so the movie can telI its story of redemption and moving on. Not just moving on for the main characters, but the Nation too.

This movie is more anti-war than anything else I saw all year. Oppenheimer could only wish it was as anti-war as this. The military is shown as uncaring and just putting people out there to die. Plus, the Military is ineffective in every conceivable way and they barely even show up on screen.

I think what surprised me the most, was how anti-government it all is. That was a new feature that I had not seen in a Big G movie that I could recall. It also is pretty disparaging of US ally-ship.

With the recent militarization of Japan, alignment with the US vs. China, growing tensions in the region; this movie definitely had a POV on the modern changes to Japanese policy. I could really put on my pretentious hat and monologue on this subject, but I will spare you all. After all, I am no expert on any of it.

A parting thought, the scene with the Heavy Cruiser Takao was absolute, pure gold. So much to unpack from that scene alone. This movie is loaded with good themes, subtext, and messaging.

I am glad I saw it in the cinema. Last Big G movie I saw was Godzilla 2000. This was light-years better than that.

This was a really good film.

And it cost less than a single episode of She-Hulk. LOL!

I'm glad it's doing so well.

Godzilla Minus One Keeps Getting Bigger and Bigger in the US - GIZMODO.com

Per a recent press release, Minus One has now made $50.6 million in the US, in turn becoming the country’s highest-grossing Japanese language film in live-action (a distinction it earned back in December) and animation. It’s also now the fifth highest-grossing non-English film in US box office, and is expected to have a global take of over $100 million when all is said and done.

 Ghaz wrote:
Godzilla Minus One Keeps Getting Bigger and Bigger in the US - GIZMODO.com

Per a recent press release, Minus One has now made $50.6 million in the US, in turn becoming the country’s highest-grossing Japanese language film in live-action (a distinction it earned back in December) and animation. It’s also now the fifth highest-grossing non-English film in US box office, and is expected to have a global take of over $100 million when all is said and done.

Well kudos to them for doing what they've done. Quite the achievement.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
And it cost less than a single episode of She-Hulk. LOL!

Wait, really? That's insane. How does that even happen?